On the evening of 12 December 1993, Lee Kok Cheong (李国祥 Lǐ Guóxiáng)[a] was at his home in Greenleaf Place along Holland Road, when three youths entered his house to commit robbery.

One of the robbers was subsequently imprisoned and caned for lesser charges of robbery, theft and cheating, while the remaining two assailants, who were both involved in the strangulation of Lee, were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 1998 and 2006 respectively.

The man's partially decomposed corpse was reportedly found lying on the floor of the master bedroom, with a pillow covering his face, and his legs tied with a belt, and his hands were raised above his head and bound with telephone wire.

[4] The victim was identified as 54-year-old Lee Kok Cheong, who was an associate professor and Head of the English Proficiency Unit at National University of Singapore (NUS).

[8][9] The other case was the death of 32-year-old Tan Kee Fan, whose body was discovered inside a rubbish chute at another location in Singapore after she was killed.

He was single and never married, and lived alone in his house at Holland Road after moving out of his Dover Crescent flat two years prior to the murder.

In his private life, Lee had several intimate relationships with young men, including at least eight undergraduates and ten other men outside the campus, including random strangers he befriended, and had a large collection of pornographic magazines about homosexual activities; this promiscuous habit gave Lee the nickname "Oriental Aunty"[b].

[16][17] The police began to investigate the murder of Lee Kok Cheong, and they found that after his death, his ATM card was still in use, and about S$3,400 in cash were withdrawn from his bank account.

About S$3,900 worth of items, including clothes, shoes and jewellery, were procured using Lee's card, and the shop owners or employees were asked to identify the buyers on the captured CCTV images, whom the police classified as possible suspects of the crime.

[23] On 23 December 1997, four years after the murder of Lee Kok Cheong, the police finally arrested "Nelson", a 25-year-old Malaysian who was entering Singapore with his girlfriend through the Woodlands Checkpoint.

"Nelson", whose real name was Too Yin Sheong (杜延雄 Dù Yánxióng),[c] became the first member of the trio to be arrested for killing Lee.

[24][25] Background information showed that Too, a secondary school drop-out, had one younger brother and two older sisters, and he was working as the manager of a karaoke lounge in Johor Bahru prior to his arrest for the murder, and both his mother and stepfather were permanent residents living in Singapore.

[26][d] On 20 May 1998, a second suspect, Ng Chek Siong (黄哲祥 Huáng Zhéxiáng; alias Koo Neng[e]), was arrested in Muar, Johor by the Royal Malaysia Police and extradited back to Singapore for trial.

[27] Two days later, Ng was charged with murder, as well as cheating and theft for having stole Lee's money and ATM card and made unauthorized transactions under the victim's name.

[30] Ng and Too were both held in remand awaiting trial for murder, while the police continued to trace the whereabouts of the third and final suspect, only known by his nickname "Kim Beh".

It was revealed that after the crime, Ng continued to go in and out of Singapore (where he worked as a freelance renovation contractor) until April 1994, when he discovered through a newspaper that he and Too and "Kim Beh" were on the police's wanted list and the publication of their photos, and this led to him realizing that Lee had been murdered, and he thus went into hiding in Muar, where he stayed until May 1998, when the Malaysian police managed to locate him and place him under arrest.

[32][33] Ng was released on parole since October 2003, after he served two-thirds of his sentence (equivalent to five years and four months) with good behaviour, and had since repatriated to Malaysia.

[34] On 17 August 1998, 26-year-old Too Yin Sheong stood trial at the High Court for one count of murdering Lee Kok Cheong five years before.

On their first meeting, Lee eagerly approached him and offered to befriend him, and even left his phone number and residential address.

Too said that he relayed his experience at the house with his two Malaysian friends: Ng Chek Siong and the missing third accomplice "Kim Beh".

[49][50] Judicial Commissioner Chan also cited that after murdering Lee, Too went on to steal Lee's ATM card to withdraw the victim's money and spent them on shopping for new clothes and jewellery for himself and his two accomplices, and these actions were not supposed to come from someone who become "confused, shocked, frightened and traumatised" at the sight of a murder.

The three judges - Chief Justice Yong Pung How, and two Judges of Appeal L P Thean (Thean Lip Ping) and M Karthigesu - upheld the murder conviction and death sentence of Too on the grounds that he played an active role behind the murder and shared the common intention with Kim Beh to commit murder aside from their intent to rob, since he never stepped in to stop the missing accomplice "Kim Beh" from strangling Lee to death, and the element of omission in this case was also considered a crime.

[63][64] "Kim Beh", whose real name was Lee Chez Kee (李哲奇 Lǐ Zhéqí), was first arrested by the Royal Malaysia Police in June 2005 for stealing a vehicle and jailed for more than a year in a Malaysian prison.

On 17 February 2006, Lee Chez Kee was released from prison, but he was handed over to the Singaporean police and extradited back to Singapore for trial.

He referred to a portion of Lee's evidence, in which he admitted to arguing with Too before the crime about his fear of being recognized, which contradicted his testimony.

He also stated that Lee even used the stolen money and card to withdraw cash to purchase items for himself and his accomplices, and he also at one point, continued to travel in and out of Singapore until the arrest of Too in 1997, which could only be interpreted as Lee knowing that the victim had died and consequently, there was no need for the trio to fear that the professor could identify the three of them and report them to the police.

[79] After his death sentence was upheld, Lee Chez Kee was eventually hanged in Changi Prison, but the exact date of his execution in 2009 was unknown.

The version of events depicted in the episode were based on the confession and account of Too Yin Sheong; the fictional character based on Too was portrayed in a more sympathetic light as a reluctant accomplice who never wanted to kill the victim but helpless to intervene, while the character modelled after Lee Chez Kee was more vicious and violent in attacking and murdering the professor.